Karwa Chauth 2026 Muhurat and Moonrise: Puja Timings for 29 October

Karwa Chauth 2026 falls on Thursday, 29 October 2026. It is the day-long nirjala vrat (a fast kept without food or water) observed for the long life and wellbeing of one's husband, broken only after sighting the Moon at night. Because the whole ritual turns on two time-sensitive moments — the puja muhurat in the evening and the moonrise that releases the fast — knowing the correct timings for your own city matters more here than for almost any other festival. This guide gives the national picture for 29 October 2026 and, more importantly, shows you how to confirm the exact window where you live.

When Karwa Chauth 2026 is

• Date: Thursday, 29 October 2026.
• Tithi: Chaturthi of the Krishna Paksha (waning fortnight) in the month of Kartik by the Purnimanta calendar.
• Fast: kept from sunrise (after the pre-dawn sargi meal) until moonrise.

The tithi does not begin and end at midnight — it runs on the Moon's motion — so the precise Chaturthi window, the puja muhurat, and the moonrise all shift by city and must be read from a panchang for your location.

The puja muhurat on 29 October 2026

The Karwa Chauth puja is performed in the evening, in the roughly 60-to-90-minute window before moonrise, often during the pradosh kaal (the twilight period after sunset). For the Delhi region on 29 October 2026, widely published panchang listings place the puja muhurat in the early evening, in the region of about 5:40 PM to 7:00 PM, with the exact figures varying by source and by city. Treat any single number as indicative only — the correct approach is to compute it for your own latitude and longitude.

Why the window is narrow

The muhurat is anchored to sunset and to the approaching moonrise, both of which change with your location. A listing calculated for Delhi can be off by many minutes for Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, or a city abroad. This is exactly the kind of location-sensitive timing a muhurat calculator is built for — you can find the auspicious window for your own city with an electional muhurat finder rather than relying on a generic national figure.

Moonrise: the moment the fast ends

The vrat is broken only after the Moon is sighted and the ritual of viewing it (often through a sieve) and offering arghya is complete. For Delhi on 29 October 2026, published timings put moonrise at roughly 8:15–8:20 PM; many sources cite about 8:18 PM. Moonrise is highly location-dependent — it can differ by half an hour or more across India and far more for cities overseas — so this is the single most important figure to confirm locally. A difference of even fifteen minutes changes when you can eat and drink again after a full day's fast.

How to confirm your exact timings

1. Find your city's sunset and moonrise for 29 October 2026 from a reliable panchang.
2. Read the puja muhurat relative to that sunset — the pradosh-kaal window before moonrise.
3. Cross-check the Chaturthi tithi start and end for your location, since the vrat is tied to the tithi, not the clock date alone.

If you want to understand how shubh muhurat windows are chosen in general — what makes a time auspicious and how the panchang's five limbs feed into it — our explainer on the Ghatasthapana muhurat for Navratri 2026 is a good companion read on how a festival's exact window is fixed. And for the daily tithi, nakshatra, and day-score behind any festival, the daily panchang calendar shows the five limbs for the date you choose.

The sargi and the day's rhythm

The fast has a shape worth knowing, because each part has its own timing. It opens before dawn with the sargi — a pre-sunrise meal, traditionally sent by the mother-in-law, eaten before the fast begins so the body is nourished for the day ahead. Many observers aim to finish the sargi before sunrise; from then until moonrise, the vrat is kept nirjala, without food or water. Through the day, women often gather to apply mehndi, wear festive red or auspicious colours, and prepare the puja thali with the karwa (a small earthen or metal pot of water), a diya, roli, rice, and sweets. The evening katha (the telling of the Karwa Chauth story) is read during or just before the puja muhurat, and the fast is broken only after the Moon is sighted, viewed through a sieve, and offered arghya. Because the day runs from pre-dawn sargi to night moonrise, planning around the two key timings — the puja window and moonrise — keeps the whole observance calm rather than rushed.

A note on observing it well

Karwa Chauth is as much a day of intention as of timing. The fast is traditionally kept by wives, though in many families it is now kept by both partners for each other. Whatever form you follow, the two timings that matter are the evening puja muhurat and the moonrise — and both are worth confirming for your own city rather than taking a Delhi figure on trust.

Timings in this guide are indicative national figures drawn from published panchang sources for 29 October 2026. Always verify the puja muhurat and moonrise for your exact location before the day.